GREEN Program

The ACDQ’s GREEN Program was born from a simple observation: Every dental clinic can do its part to reduce the quantity of waste generated in the health sector, which is overflowing with single-use products.

This program was launched in 2019 in collaboration with RECYC-QUÉBEC and Stratzer, a firm that specializes in environmental strategies, to provide dentists with useful tools to help them apply best practices in managing residual materials in their dental clinics.

The GREEN Program proves that dental clinics can go green and still meet the profession’s high standards and deliver outstanding quality dental care.

Go green with this toolkit

A Structured Process for a Greener Clinic
This plan lays out the 11 detailed steps of a coherent process that transforms how dental clinics manage their residual waste one action at a time.

List of Greener Products
This document contains a list with dozens of common single-use products in clinics that can be replaced with greener alternatives in keeping with the strictest asepsis standards.

Top 10 Green Actions
The ten actions on this list are a good starting point for dentists and their team who are ready to take their first step toward improving residual material management in their clinic.

Environmental Charter
A clear commitment, as suggested in this charter, can rally the entire team behind the process of transitioning toward greener practices.

One-of-a-kind assistance in Canada

The ACDQ’s GREEN Program tools are:

• Conceived so that they can be tailored to every dentist’s situation
• Based on waste management audits in dental clinics
• Focused on protecting patients, delivering quality care and maintaining the highest standards of practice
• Designed to help dentists obtain an ICI on recycle + certificate from the RECYC-QUÉBEC program
• Tried and tested, having supported 20 dental clinics that achieved excellent results in 2024
• Recognized for their excellence, thanks to the 2024 Projet Vert ICI+ Award won by the program

The Green Program offers much more than theoretical guidance. It provides a flexible process to teams that want to take on the challenge of reducing their environmental impact. It recommends that they replace single-use products, including certain products that they use dozens of times a day, with more sustainable solutions, among other actions.

The GREEN Program in the media

The program has received significant media coverage in the last few years.

• Un programme pour réduire les déchets dans les cliniques dentaires (in French)
Article in the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean section of Radio-Canada Info – May 2026

• L’écologie s’invite chez les dentists (in French)
Article in La Presse, "Planète bleue, idées vertes" section – October 2025

• Une clinique dentaire de l’Estrie engagée pour éliminer les produits jetables (in French)
Article in the Estrie section of Radio-Canada Info – July 2025

• Dentists Reduce Plastics
Video report by CBC News Montreal - July 2024

Webinars worth watching

ACDQ members can watch two webinars on the GREEN Program. One webinar explains how to implement the program and its the tools, and the other presents a summary of the support provided to 20 clinics in 2024. Thanks to these clinics’ efforts, over 337,000 products were kept out of landfills and more than 75,000 products were sent to recycling or organic material collection services.

The webinars are available for viewing in the “Training” section of the member portal.

Have questions about the GREEN Program?

Email Francis Brunelle at [email protected]. All media requests can be sent to [email protected].

ACDQ members who wish to consult Stratzer for assistance can take advantage of exclusive offers.